Dear Lifehacker,
I love having a smartphone, and Wi-Fi's nearly everywhere these days, so I'd rather not pay $30 a month for data. Sadly, most of the cellphone carriers require that I purchase a data plan. Is there any way I can get out of it?

Sincerely,
Dreading Data

Dear Dreading,

Many people out there feel your pain. It's very annoying that most US providers force a data plan on you even if you don't want it, and there's no easy way to get them to waive the fee. However, if you're dead set on having a smartphone without data, there are a few things you can try.

Threaten to Cancel

When we asked you on Twitter how you used smartphone without a data plan, a few of you noted that calling your carrier and threatening to cancel actually caused them to waive the data plan. This is probably the least reliable method, and will depend on your carrier and the customer service rep you speak to, but it's a good first step since it's probably the simplest. If it doesn't work, though, you'll have to try one of the methods below.

Use an Old SIM Card in an Unlocked Phone

If you really want to stick with your contract, you can try giving your carrier the ol' switcheroo with your SIM card. You'll need three things for this method:

A GSM-based carrier, like AT&T or T-Mobile. This trick will not work with Verizon or Sprint, since they don't use SIM cards.

A data-less contract. If your contract already has data on it, you'll either need to cancel that contract or wait for it to run out, and get a regular voice and text contract with a dumbphone.

An unlocked smartphone. These are quite a bit more expensive than on-contract phones, especially at the store, so probably the best course of action is to find one on Craigslist or eBay. You can also jailbreak and unlock an AT&T-based iPhone for this, in many cases. This method has a higher chance of working if you buy a phone that carrier doesn't already carry, too—so if you're on AT&T, for example, try to find a GSM-based, non-AT&T phone.

Once you've got your unlocked phone, just swap the SIM card from your dumbphone into the smartphone and you should be good to go. Note that this won't work all the time, of course, since your carrier can tell what type of phone your SIM card is in. Sometimes, they'll try to add a data plan to your contract if they detect your SIM card in a smartphone (though they'll notify you before they do). AT&T is more notorious for this than T-Mobile is, but because it's pretty risky, I don't recommend you go out of your way to cancel your contract just to try this method. If you already have a non-data contract, go for it, but know that it's one of the less reliable methods.

Use a Prepaid Plan

Lastly, you can often get a prepaid voice-and-text-only plan and use your smartphone on it. Again, this depends on the carrier, but most people seem to have good luck with carriers like PagePlus or T-Mobile, as long as you choose a plan without data. Other prepaid carriers may work, but these two come the most highly recommended for data-less smartphones. And, if your prepaid phone has a SIM card (such as those on T-Mobile's prepaid plans), you can often swap it into any phone you want—even an unlocked iPhone—and keep calling and texting without a data plan looming over your head.

Your mileage may vary with any of these options, but hopefully this can get you started on your search, and if you're lucky, one of them can help you get all that Angry Birds action without the extra $30 a month.

Sincerely,
Lifehacker

P.S. If any of you have experience with any of these methods (or a method we didn't list), please share it with us in the comments!